June 28, 2023
Is M&A part of your growth strategy? No problem for Business Central!
Are you considering using mergers and acquisitions to grow your business? Take a closer look at Business Central.
Advantages of growth through M&A
One of the leading ways to grow a company is through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). There are several reasons for this strategy, including:
- Increased market presence – M&A allows companies to expand their market presence with new storefronts, geographical areas, distribution channels, and customer bases.
- Removing competition – An M&A strategy can help companies consolidate their market position by acquiring competitors (and their intellectual property) and expanding their market share.
- Diversification – M&A helps a company diversify its offerings by adding complementary products to the market mix.
- Increased bottom line – Businesses often look for M&A to reduce duplication, maximizing profit through economies of scale.
M&A challenges
Despite the many advantages, M&A also come with a unique set of challenges, such as:
- Integrating data and software systems – Typically, the acquired company runs an entirely different financial and CRM software system than the acquiring company. This leads to complex system integration and data consolidation issues, which can take months to sort out.
- Security and compliance – Multiple systems also lead to disconnects with user rights and privileges (segregation of duties issues), inconsistencies with handling sensitive information, and regulatory compliance issues, potentially resulting in penalties and security breaches.
- Streamlining processes – No two companies have the same processes. As a result, the companies must decide how to optimally combine their internal processes to maintain quality of service and adherence to corporate governance requirements.
- Financial consolidation – M&A activities involve complex financial considerations, such as asset valuation, debt restructuring, and handling consolidations.
How can Business Central help?
Business Central is a secure, cloud-based ERP that comes with powerful features to support companies through the M&A process:
- Financial management – Business Central’s comprehensive financial management capabilities include general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, and cash flow management, helping organizations consolidate financial data and perform financial analysis during the M&A process.
- Data migration and integration – Business Central has native functionality for transferring data from outdated systems and integrating with disparate business applications. During the M&A process, data integration and consolidation play a vital role. Business Central simplifies this process by seamlessly merging data from diverse systems and establishing a centralized repository of information.
- Reporting and analytics – Business Central’s reporting and analytics capabilities help organizations examine data, produce financial reports, and analyze key performance indicators, features that are critical for successful mergers and acquisitions.
- Workflow and collaboration – Business Central integrates natively with the Microsoft Office productivity suite (Word, Excel, Teams, Outlook, etc.) as well as the Azure Power Platform, a suite of low-code/no-code tools for non-technical end users to access and analyze the information they need (Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents). These tools help the teams involved in the M&A process collaborate and manage tasks more efficiently.
Find out if Business Central is right for your business. Take our brief quiz to find out today!